It has been a hard and long road to ensuring that students have a smooth transition from community colleges to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). In 2008, led by Dr. Yasmin Delahoussaye, previous president of Southwest College and former vice chancellor of the Los Angeles Community Colleges District, and under the guise of the African American Outreach Initiative (AAOI), created 9 articulation agreements for the following HBCUs: Albany State University, Clark Atlanta University, Fort Valley State University, Hampton University, Howard University, Morehouse College, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University, Paine College, and Savannah State University.

More recently, Helen Young, Transfer Center and Honors Director at West Los Angeles Community College was part of the committee of the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office that worked over the past 18 months to form state-wide articulation agreements to form a pioneering Historically Black Colleges and Universities Transfer Admission Guarantee Program with the following 9 HBCUs:

Because these agreements are intended for all 112 California Community Colleges (CCCs), they have been kept simple to ensure easy pathways for students. These agreements do not replace any specific articulation agreements (course-to-course or program) that a CCC might have with a HBCU currently. Both Young and Delahoussaye who attended the signing ceremony in Sacramento, discussed the need to work on updating LACCD’s HBCU articulation agreements. The AAOI has already begun working on that undertaking scheduled for this spring.